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Masvingo- Shineplus Housing Development Trust has revived an affordable housing scheme for low income government workers in a bid to offer them an intermittent opportunity to land and property ownership.
The scheme will allow Civil servants to pay affordable monthly installments for a period of some years as most of them cannot afford to pay a once off 50% or 25% down payments for stands that cost from US$12 000 to US$20 000 because of their low monthly salaries.
In an interview with the Centre News, Shineplus Managing Director, Charles Mushinga, said they are reviving the project they started some few years back and stalled after their land bank had exhausted.
“This time in 2025 we are looking at having over 1000 beneficiaries from the civil servants and we will be going to their work places like schools and we want to empower them with title deeds so that they become land and property owners from our land bank” said Mushinga.
Mushinga said they realized that most housing developers demand high down payments in cash for civil servants who can hardly afford the huge amounts to start building houses.
He added that the scheme will involve the payment of US$100 per month for a period of about 5 years so this will make life easy for civil servants to afford owning homes.
“The project involves a stop order at the Salary Services Bureau(SSB) of only $100 a month instead of going to other developers who may demand say 50% or 25% of a $15 000 stand, surely civil servants cannot afford to pay the half price at once,” he added.
We also came up with the project after realization that the banking sector is no longer supporting mortgage schemes for low income earners.
The beneficiaries will start building their houses after reaching a small percentage of the cost of the stands some of which are at $45 per square meter.
“After 6 months of deduction the beneficiary will be allocated his or her stand and upon reaching 25% they will be able to develop their stands and stay there,” added Mushinga.
He said his organization was there to bridge the gap between home seekers and expensive developers as well as the banks that are no longer interested.
“In line with the NDS blue print on housing and the President’s desire to make people proud home owners we are taking this hybrid housing development scheme to fulfill government policy and set goals,” Mushinga added.
The projects will be undertaken in Masvingo urban’s Victoria Range suburbs, Chiredzi urban, Gutu Mpandawana town, Rutenga in Mwenezi, Checheche in Manicaland, Chivhu in Mashonaland East and Chinhoyi in Mashonaland West
